Smartphone free at Year 7?

[CautiousOptimist]

I’ve been following the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign with interest, although personally I didn’t write to my MP because I am happy with my 13 and 11 year olds having smartphones mainly for useful / practical / educational use and monitor their use.

I have done my research and understand the reasons but personally with a Yr 8 and a Yr 6 making their own way to school I want them to have phones. Neither has social media and won’t for the foreseeable. We strictly limit YouTube at home, are careful about age ratings for games etc.

Anyway… secondary schools in our area are planning to be Smartphone Free from Year 7 from September.

Am I alone in seeing issues with and being against this?

My Yr 8 child gets homework set on an app. They use apps for German, French and Geography homework. He regularly does this on his bus journey. Sometimes they use phone cameras in Art lessons. They also get messages from teachers on Teams many times a week, messages about extra curriculars etc.

I’m happy with all this and think phones are incredibly useful. But surely the schools cannot continue working like this while being Smartphone-free from Year 7?

Does anyone have a secondary school which is already Smartphone free? If so, please can you tell me what happens when children commute a long way for school and their parents want them to have a phone for bus apps etc? Do phones get turned off and put in bags as they enter the school gates? Or are they confiscated and children given sanctions for having a phone at all? I would love to know how this is going to work, obviously the tide is turning!

I’m not anti-phone, more anti-unsupervised-smartphone-at-11. If they genuinely need bus apps / homework apps / a way to contact you, I think a stripped-back smartphone is a more realistic compromise than pretending phones don’t exist. Something like Findmykids for the school run side, with socials still off, feels about right to me.

It is not saying children should never have access to smartphones, just not in school and I think this is very sensible.
Apps are really useful for homework, timetables and messages, but I find my children don’t need access to these in school.
There are numerous ways parents can manage this, having a smartphone for home use only, via a tablet, on a computer or on a parents phone.
My youngest is Y10 and although they had a smartphone they never took it to school in years 7-9, it never caused any issues.

Schools won't use them in lessons

Unfortunately it isn’t enough. Kids sneak them out in lessons or simply go into the toilets to use them. I think the pouches are the best option as it disables them completely during the school day.

My son’s school asks for phones to be turned off when they enter the school gates and they stay off until they leave the school gates at the end of the day. If they need to use their phone in school, they can do so with the permission of a member of staff. For example, my son was kept behind after school for an extra rehearsal and his teacher gave him permission to text me to say that he was going to be late.

They get their homework set on an app and they can complete their maths and science homework on a different app which does seem odd but the school brought the no phones rule in a few years ago because children weren’t talking to each other at break times and lunch times any more, they were just playing with their phones.

It is somewhat comical at the end of the school day when lots of children rush off the site then stop immediately to check their phones.

It works fine at my grandson's school.
They have no opportunity to sneak them out in lessons. Or in the toilets.
Phones are turned off and put away before they enter the school and are not turned back on until they leave the premises.

Sorry but that's pure ignorance and I speak as a a teacher.

Put away where? In their bags or in a location controlled by the school? If in bags, then you are being very naïve. Most schools have that rule, and kids still manage to use their phones a lot. A controlled location (locker etc) is better, but it's quite easy for kids to claim they don't have a phone with them, or to hand in an old one.

The phones are turned off. Lessons are very carefully supervised a child would not en able to inadvertently use it while in class.
I am not being naive I know teachers as well as children at the school. I have worked in that school.
If children are found with a phone they are sanctioned. Of course it happens sometimes children break rules but it is not the norm. And there is absolutely no need to ban phones completely just because occasionally a child breaks the rules

Our school has phones turned in at the start of the day as well, and collected at the end. Yes, kids have turned in an old phone and kept theirs. Most do it once. Phone then gets removed, and can only be collected by a parent between 10 and 12 in the morning, plus detention.
School is in the middle of nowhere, so a parent collecting the phone means that parent looses about 90 minutes of their day. Detention means waiting for the next bus, 90 minutes later. Even if parents collect after detention- school office is closed, so they’ll have to come again to collect the phone.
Works a treat.

I left teaching 10 years ago and phones were not used in lessons at all so I don’t see a problem in returning to that, in fact it will be so much better as they will not feel the pull of checking other apps while they are ‘working’.

my ds is year 6 and the school he will likely be going to is screen free from year 7. They have a list of allowed phones so I will be buying him a non smart phone for emergencies. The other local school has the pouches already. I personally prefer an outright ban and am so relieved that schools are now listening to parents and children who do not want phones in schools.